132 ON THE MORniOLOGICAL CONSTITUTION OF 



the maxillary resumes its connection with the pre-frontal, 

 which it had lost iu the two other families on account of the 

 elongation of the snout. The pre-frontals in all the crocodilians 

 are separated from one another mesially by the passage back- 

 wards of narrow contiguous processes of the nasals, and by 

 similar processes which pass forwards from the so-called 

 " proper frontals " — in this respect resembling the so-called 

 " nasals " of the bird, which are separated from one another 

 by the ascending processes of the intermaxillaries. 



Assuming the relations of the pre-frontals of the croco- 

 dilian to the maxillary arch as evidence of their being the 

 meta-neurapophyses of the ethmoidal sclerotome — that is, 

 collectively, the homologue of the mammalian frontal — the 

 next elements of this sclerotome to be determined are its 

 neurapophyses. At this point the type of ethmoidal sclero- 

 tome exhibited by the bird, and the modification of that type 

 presented by the chelonian, indicate its character in the 

 crocodilian. The descending processes of the pre-frontals of 

 the crocodiles are connected inferiorly to the ascending pro- 

 cesses of the so-called " palate-bones." Now, a bone connected 

 to the homologue of the mammalian frontal cannot well be 

 considered as the palate-bone, even although it be situated 

 between and united by suture to the maxillary and pterygoid. 

 But a bone with such relations, if viewed in the light of the 

 corresponding relations of the ethmoidal neurapophyses of the 

 bird, indicates its own real nature. The ethmoidal neura- 

 pophyses of the bird, connected above with the ethmoido- 

 frontals, form below more or less of the palatine vault. The 

 ethmoidal neurapophyses of the chelonians, pushed away 

 forwards and downwards from the ethmoido-frontal by the 

 ento-pterygoid, still form a part of the vault of the palate. (?) 

 In like manner I recognise, in the so-called " palate-bones " 

 of the crocodilian, the neurapophyses of its ethmoidal sclero- 

 tome. The ethmoido-frontals and neurapophyses of the bird, 



